December, 2013

The past week has definitely been all about juggling work with our office move… so it was nice to dress up on Thursday evening and attend the Drapers Awards 2013, an annual evening of glamour and celebration with some of the most renowned names in the UK fashion retail industry.

It was the 2nd time in a week I had been to an event at Old Billingsgate in the City of London; the NOAH tech conference after party was also held there.

An audience of more than 800 gathered for the black-tie awards dinner and Girl Meets Dress were seated with a fabulous group from the retail and ecommerce industry at our table. Our host Victoria from Drapers led an extremely fun dinner, deciding to monopolise the twitter feed on the big screen above the stage by creating our own hashtag #table72 – and as we browsed the lots on auction from the ipads placed on each table, we enjoyed courses of pumpkin, duck and chocolate cheesecake.

The dresses on show were extremely impressive, with all the female attendees choosing to go high in the glamour stakes and the obvious trends of the night were fully sequinned mini dresses, short lace dresses with sleeves, and black full length gowns. I decided to go for colour, and picked a red lace cocktail dress by a new brand to Girl Meets Dress Honor Gold. I was in the mood for sleeves, and teamed the dress with black tights, metallic slingback sandals and a black snakeskin box clutch bag.

We bumped into lots of familar faces from the retail and online industry and it was great to catch up with friends we hadn’t seen in a while. The Drapers ladies looked stunning as usual, and had all decided to go for dresses with a shine, whether chunky multicoloured beads, sequins or glittery strands sewn into chiffon.

Dara O’Briain was our host for the evening, announcing the award winners, and the hilarious Irishman helped make the night a memorable one.

The after dinner party was circus themed and contained a photo booth, a popcorn stand and a pick and mix cart. When the evening ended at 2am on the dance floor, we collected our coats and headed out into the night, as I glanced back and caught sight of Drapers team shimmering away to the music.

A group of our favourite bloggers were invited to choose their dream designer dress from a secret press showrooms before finding their perfect Boux Avenue lingerie with an expert bra fitting in the luxurious fitting suites where fizz, bubbles and fun were served.

Once dressed to impress, the girls received the VIP treatment in hair and make-up. Charles Worthington stylists created a menu of four fabulous styles – plaits, blow outs, chic pony tails and up do’s, while AOFM finished each look with a beauty makeover.

Dressed up and ready for dinner, the bloggers were whisked away to Beach Blanket Babylon in Notting Hill.

About me

I’m pleased to reveal that I have joined HELLO!’s blogging team. You can follow my Dress Diary, as the Girl Meets Dress team continue our mission to democratize luxury!

We believe that everybody deserves a Cinderella experience and in this blog I am going to share with you how, from our HQ in London, we provide millions of women the ability to look and feel beautiful for all their special occasions.

Over the past 10 years I have worked in the fashion industry, on Fashion magazines such as InStyle, Harpers Bazaar and The Telegraph Mag - and in PR for french luxury brand Hermes.

My decision to launch a company was something I had been planning on doing for a long time, and as soon as a had the idea for Girl Meets Dress, I knew.